For some healthcare treatments, patients are injected with a needle to transfer medication or to extract or insert liquids out of and into the human body. For some treatments, the accuracy of the injection is important. If the needle is guided accurately to a specific place inside a body, e.g. a human or animal body, side-effects of the treatment are minimized. The treatment is typically performed in hospitals by a trained physician or under his supervision.
An example of a treatment where the accurate placement of a needle is a prime consideration is supplying anesthetic to a localized region of a body. The anesthetic may be needed as preparation of surgery or other treatments or care. Typical targets of the physician or the expert is to inject inside a particular local region, e.g. a particular muscle, nerve or other special element or region of the body.
If the injection needle is positioned by a medical expert, physician or the like, then the patient relies on the physician's abilities for a precise positioning of the needle in the considered region of the body.
The expert physician may analyze the local region of the body prior to the needle injection with a so-called echo-transducer device, which is based on sending ultrasound frequencies through the human skin into the body. These sound waves are reflected by the human tissue, nerves, blood vessels and the like. With a receiving device, the reflections are measured, processed and visualized on a display. After reviewing the visualizations of the local region, the physician performs the injection. Typically, however, the physician must also base his actions on his expertise and has only minor support from the echo transducer device.